James Olsen to become DC Comics vigilante Guardian on The CW’s Supergirl

Share This Post

James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) is about to make the move from faithful sidekick to kickass masked vigilante later this season on The CW’s Supergirl.

The news was announced by executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, who also revealed the identity of the DC Comics vigilante James will suit up as: Guardian. Funnily enough, he’ll also have his own sidekick in Winn (Jeremy Jordan), whose day job is now working for the DEO.

So, who’s Guardian? Created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon — the dudes who created Captain America for Marvel Comics — Guardian, real name Jim Harper, was a Metropolis cop who first appeared in the pages of Star-Spangled Comics #7 back in 1942. His goal? To guard society from criminals. He was also very Cap-like in that the character had no superpowers besides being a skilled hand-to-hand fighter, sported a golden helmet and, like Cap, also fought with an indestructible shield.

In 2005, Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart created The Manhattan Guardian, based on the original Guardian character, who made his first appearance in The Manhattan Guardian #1. Real name Jake Jordan, this new Guardian was an African-American disgraced cop who ended up unemployed and took up the golden shield and helmet of the masked vigilante. Obviously, the Arrowverse’s Guardian will be its own thing, but Andrew Kreisberg promises he’ll wield the shield.

“James has a pretty big turn coming up. These next few episodes are going to make him realize that being a photographer… is not enough for him, so he’s going to go on a pretty exciting career trajectory that we’re really pumped by. James is going to decide that he can no longer sit back and be a sidekick, so he’s going to decide to become a vigilante and he’s going to become Guardian — complete with the shield — which is going to cause a massive problem in his relationship with Kara [Melissa Benoist], because he has decided not to tell her. Now there’s this new masked vigilante, and she has her own feelings about vigilantes, and it becomes a push and pull about who gets to decide who gets to be a hero? He’s recruited Winn [Jeremy Jordan] to help him, Winn is his man in the van, so the two of them are doing this together. Winn and James together is comedy gold. Watching Winn, as he takes his job at the DEO, but then he’s lying to everybody about how he’s spending his nights, because he’s going out with James, and how he walks in exhausted or walks in with a black eye and says he walked into a door, is the fun excitement of building these first 10 episodes.”

What do you guys think about James Olsen suiting up as Guardian on Supergirl and Winn moonlighting as his sidekick?